Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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HOUSTON -- A company that owns two Japanese restaurants in Kemah and Houston, Texas, has agreed to pay $112,080 in back wags to 64 current and former wait staff and kitchen employees following an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division. The agency found that the restaurants violated the minimum wage and overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

“The Department of Labor is committed to ensuring that workers are paid correctly,” said Cynthia Watson, Wage and Hour regional administrator in Dallas. “In this case, the employer required servers to split more than 15 percent of their tips, leaving some workers at a pay rate below the minimum wage. In addition, kitchen help was paid straight time for hours worked over 40 in a workweek.”

Houston’s Wage and Hour Division determined that Ichibon S S H Inc., doing business as Ichibon Seafood and Steak House in Kemah and Ichibon Japanese Restaurant in Houston, failed to properly pay the minimum wage to tipped employees from July 12, 2003 to July 2, 2005. Overtime violations were also found. The company cooperated with the investigation and has agreed to future compliance with the FLSA.

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) tip pooling is allowed but limited to employees who customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips. This would include waiters, waitresses, countermen, busboys and service bartenders. Managers however are not eligible to participate in tip pooling.

Traditionally restaurants consider tips part of an employee’s wages, but must pay at least $2.13 an hour in direct wages. If the combined wages fall below $5.15 an hour, the employer must make up the difference and bring the employee’s wages up to the minimum wage.

The FLSA requires employers to pay employees the minimum wage for all hours worked and time and one-half their regular rate of pay for hours worked over 40 per week. Employers must also maintain accurate time and payroll records.

To promote compliance with the FLSA in the restaurant industry, Wage and Hour’s Houston office is working with the Greater Houston Restaurant Association to provide important compliance information to more than 4,000 Houston restaurants.

For more information about federal overtime laws, call the Department of Labor’s toll-free help line at 1-866-4USWAGE (1-866-487-9243) or contact the Houston district office at (713) 339-5500. Information is also available on the Internet at www.wagehour.dol.gov.

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U.S. Department of Labor releases are accessible on the Internet at www.dol.gov. The information in this news release will be made available in alternate format (large print, Braille, audio tape or disc) from the COAST office upon request. Please specify which news release when placing your request at (202) 693-7828 or TTY (202) 693-7755. The Labor Department is committed to providing America’s employers and employees with easy access to understandable information on how to comply with its laws and regulations. For more information, please visit www.dol.gov/compliance.